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Saturday, October 20, 2018

As discussed ad nauseam one of the bad things about being black in a society that runs on the idea of white supremacy is that not only the police but everyday whites feel entitled to question or to reject black presence in what the white person considers to be a "white" space or at least the "wrong" space for that black person to be occupying. This can be something minor such a secretary mistaking the new black manager for custodial help, something major like a self-appointed neighborhood watchman murdering a black teen and everything in between. There is evidence that the resulting continual lifetime "fight or flight" response is not good for black people. This response may be implicated in everything from higher rates of hypertension to higher infant and birth mother mortality rates to higher rates of strokes and cardiac arrest. In short it's not healthy to be stressed out and under attack all the time. Who knew?There was recently another reminder of how when information is processed through a racist mindset even the most innocuous behavior becomes life threatening. This incident also displayed how some whites do not view blacks as adults worthy of the respect granted to adults.MILWAUKEE —An Uber driver says someone pointed a gun in his face in Milwaukee on Saturday, but it wasn't a robbery. He captured the encounter on video and said it's a symptom of Wisconsin's concealed carry law. In the video, a man is seen with a large, silver gun as Uber driver Darnell Smith records the confrontation near 40th Street and Mill Road early Saturday. "Just because you have a conceal and carry license doesn't mean pull your gun out if you think something is happening," Smith said.Smith said he stopped at about 2 a.m. Saturday to clean out trash left in his car by his last passengers when a resident walked up, drew a gun and demanded to know what he was doing. "I have no obligation to tell you s**t. Nothing. You didn't even tell me who you were when you pulled up. For all I know, you were trying to rob me," Smith responded on the video. Both men called police, but no one was arrested. "We don't want the drug activity. We don't want it on our block,” said Todd Sincock, who was one of two men who confronted the Uber driver. Sincock said he and his brother think the street is a haven for drug dealing. They assumed Smith was a drug dealer and said they were just trying to scare him off.

LINKThe man who pulled his gun and brandished it should have been arrested. It's hard to imagine reversing the races and having this encounter not end in an arrest. The man should lose his concealed carry permit. This is not rocket science. He was not defending himself or his brother from a deadly threat. He was the deadly threat. This is another reason why I think more and more black people will start to carry weapons. It really doesn't in my point of view make a lot of sense to be reflexively anti-gun while living in a country with many people who have made it quite clear that they fear and hate you for something as simple as breathing their air.Unarmed Black men are routinely shot by police and others because someone thought they had a gun. Black men might as well get a gun. Black men are dealing with some unreasonable people who simply won't behave themselves unless made to do so.

As discussed ad nauseam one of the bad things about being black in a society that runs on the idea of white supremacy is that not only the police but everyday whites feel entitled to question or to reject black presence in what the white person considers to be a "white" space or at least the "wrong" space for that black person to be occupying. This can be something minor such a secretary mistaking the new black manager for custodial help, something major like a self-appointed neighborhood watchman murdering a black teen and everything in between. There is evidence that the resulting continual lifetime "fight or flight" response is not good for black people. This response may be implicated in everything from higher rates of hypertension to higher infant and birth mother mortality rates to higher rates of strokes and cardiac arrest. In short it's not healthy to be stressed out and under attack all the time. Who knew?There was recently another reminder of how when information is processed through a racist mindset even the most innocuous behavior becomes life threatening. This incident also displayed how some whites do not view blacks as adults worthy of the respect granted to adults.MILWAUKEE —An Uber driver says someone pointed a gun in his face in Milwaukee on Saturday, but it wasn't a robbery. He captured the encounter on video and said it's a symptom of Wisconsin's concealed carry law. In the video, a man is seen with a large, silver gun as Uber driver Darnell Smith records the confrontation near 40th Street and Mill Road early Saturday. "Just because you have a conceal and carry license doesn't mean pull your gun out if you think something is happening," Smith said.Smith said he stopped at about 2 a.m. Saturday to clean out trash left in his car by his last passengers when a resident walked up, drew a gun and demanded to know what he was doing. "I have no obligation to tell you s**t. Nothing. You didn't even tell me who you were when you pulled up. For all I know, you were trying to rob me," Smith responded on the video. Both men called police, but no one was arrested. "We don't want the drug activity. We don't want it on our block,” said Todd Sincock, who was one of two men who confronted the Uber driver. Sincock said he and his brother think the street is a haven for drug dealing. They assumed Smith was a drug dealer and said they were just trying to scare him off.

LINKThe man who pulled his gun and brandished it should have been arrested. It's hard to imagine reversing the races and having this encounter not end in an arrest. The man should lose his concealed carry permit. This is not rocket science. He was not defending himself or his brother from a deadly threat. He was the deadly threat. This is another reason why I think more and more black people will start to carry weapons. It really doesn't in my point of view make a lot of sense to be reflexively anti-gun while living in a country with many people who have made it quite clear that they fear and hate you for something as simple as breathing their air.Unarmed Black men are routinely shot by police and others because someone thought they had a gun. Black men might as well get a gun. Black men are dealing with some unreasonable people who simply won't behave themselves unless made to do so.

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